


Kiss it Better

by Applesandbannas747



Series: Stuck With You [1]
Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22142542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesandbannas747/pseuds/Applesandbannas747
Summary: Tanner Reed is the fastest (and coolest) kid in second grade. He likes juice, monkey bars, and playing chase. Hedoes notlike crybabies, tattletales, or mice. And the new kid looks like all of Tanner's least favorite things. That's why it isn't really his fault about the pushing. And itdefinitelyisn't his fault about them getting stuck together even worse than that time Tanner glued his hand to the table during art class.
Relationships: Kally Jenkins/Tanner Reed
Series: Stuck With You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593739
Comments: 20
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every comma in this bitch has been checked off and approved by my freakishly smart older sister (except for the ones I'm emotionally attached to and refused to compromise on). I'd credit her as my beta reader for this but I'm not sure she really wants to be associated with me lmao 
> 
> Anyway, one time someone asked me on tumblr if I planned to write any side ships for Fence and I was like naaaahhhhh probably not, not for a long time. Within the week, I'd started 2 Tanner/Kally fics because it just be that way sometimes. This one, though, was an accident. Born of a different, should have been unrelated, accident. So it's like a compound accident. Enjoy ✌️💜

Tanner didn’t like the new kid. He always smelled like apple pies and he was always sharing the treats his moms packed him for lunch. _Everyone_ loved the new kid. They all wanted to know everything about him just because he was nice. Tanner called people like him goody-goodies and he didn’t trust them at all. They were teacher’s pets and know-it-alls. Thought they were sooooo cool when they weren’t anything special. Even if all his classmates had fallen for his act, Tanner knew better.

Kally Jenkins wasn’t anyone Tanner wanted to be friends with. Not for all the juice in the world. Not for all the juice _and_ cookies in the world. He watched all his friends flock to Kally at the lunch table again, eyes feeling hot. His sister gave him a warning look from across the cafeteria. She was in fifth grade and hated when Tanner ‘caused a scene.’ She said it embarrassed her. Tanner stuck his tongue out at her. He didn’t care about embarrassing her in front of her stupid friends. But he wasn’t going to throw a fit just because everyone suddenly loved Kally best. Kally was stupid and not worth it.

“Tanner, would you like to try some?” He sounded as soft and smooth as a mother singing a lullaby and the sound of it made Tanner mad faster than anything else could. He glared down the table to see Kally’s hand outstretched in an offer, holding something toward him.

“Gross,” Tanner said, turning his nose up at it like he would if it was broccoli. “Who would want to eat your weird food? It smells so bad, it stinks up the whole lunchroom.” Kally’s face crumpled and his hand closed around whatever he’d been holding out.

“Tanner! Don’t be mean,” Veronica told him before turning to comfort Kally. Tanner stuck his tongue out at her too. He wasn’t being mean and, anyway, he didn’t care what Veronica Ross thought. But Davey and Len and Arthur were all on Kally’s side, too, and he _did_ care what they thought. Stupid Kally was ruining everything and taking all his friends.

Tanner stabbed at his potatoes with a spork and wondered if he could get away with going to recess before he’d finished eating all of his lunch. Sometimes, if you were sneaky about it, you could throw away your food before the lunch attendants caught you at it. Then they had to let you go play. But today when he tried, Ms. Rosemary stopped him and made him go sit back down to finish his chicken sandwich and peas.

Kally left early and _his_ food was barely any more gone than Tanner’s was. Tanner watched him leave the cafeteria without being questioned by any of the grown-ups. They all thought he was _responsible_ and a _good_ _eater_. He put his lunchbox on the blue rack by all the other second-graders’ and went out to play.

 _If he can get away with it,_ Tanner thought, _why shouldn’t I?_

* * *

“Tanner Reed, please come talk with me.”

Tanner froze, only halfway into the classroom. He knew he was busted. Mrs. Greene didn’t call kids like that unless they were in trouble. But he hadn’t done anything wrong at recess, so he didn’t think he deserved that voice. The one that meant a phone call home unless you improved your behavior. He slunk over to her desk, shrinking before her. She had hands on her hips and a frown on her face and Tanner saw Kally standing just behind her. He hadn’t been at recess. He looked like he’d been crying. Suddenly, Tanner knew why he was in trouble.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Mrs. Greene asked.

“I was just joking,” Tanner said, throwing on his puppy dog pout. It had worked all last year on Mr. S.

“Tanner, you know we don’t make fun of our friends. Kind words, remember?”

He nodded. His puppy face had never worked right on her.

“And do you think it was very nice to say what you did to Kally?”

“No,” he said. Because if he didn’t agree with her, he’d just be getting that phone call home and he _hated_ those.

“Can you apologize to your friend?” She asked.

 _He’s not my friend,_ Tanner wanted to shout. Especially not now that he’d gone and tattled like a baby.

“Sorry,” he actually said.

“Look at Kally in the eye when you apologize. And you can do better than that,” she added. “I’d like to hear some sincerity please.”

“Sorry, Kally,” Tanner said, looking into Kally’s stupid eyes that were too big behind his stupid glasses.

“That’s okay,” Kally said, fidgeting like he didn’t want to be at the teacher’s desk any more than Tanner did. He shouldn’t have tattled if he didn’t like it but Tanner didn’t say. He didn’t say anything until Mrs. Greene told them to go back to their seats.

Then he said, “Crybaby.”

* * *

Tanner had known Kally wasn’t anything good. He’d started at school four weeks ago and his shiny hair and pale eyes had all the girls in the class writing Valentine’s notes to him even though Valentine’s happened after Christmas and it wasn’t even Thanksgiving yet. Tanner didn’t _like_ the girls. They all had cooties. But he liked when they chased him around the playground and he had to go fast, fast, _fast_ because they’d kiss him if they caught him. And he didn’t like that they hadn’t chased him since Kally had come to school.

And Tanner’s friends all liked Kally a lot because he’d share his food at lunchtime. He used to share his food at lunchtime. Lately, Kally had barely even opened his lunch. But Davey and Len and Arthur still all sat next to him.

But the real problem with Kally was that he’d told on Tanner. And Tanner hadn’t even hurt him, he’d just said he didn’t want any of his stupid food. So Tanner had already known that he didn’t like Kally, but now it was personal.

“You’re hogging the monkey bars!” Tanner shouted up at Kally. He’d been the first out to recess every day this week and he was always on the blue monkey bars, sitting on top of them like he thought he was the only kid brave enough to go up there. He wasn’t. Tanner loved the monkey bars too. He just wasn’t able to play on them because Kally was hogging all the space.

“There’s other monkey bars,” Kally told him.

“But I want to play on the blue ones.”

“I was here first.”

“You’ve gotta take turns!”

“No. Go play on the green ones.”

“I don’t want to!”

“Why not?”

“Because I said so! Get off, I want to swing on them and your big butt is in the way.”

“Ooooh, Tanner said a potty word!” A kid nearby said, laughing. Tanner grinned. The playground was the safest place to get away with potty words but even here it was risky to say words like that. Tanner had always been brave enough to say whatever he wanted wherever he wanted. Except for right in front of Mrs. Greene. He didn’t say words like _butt_ to her because she was scary.

“Tanner, stop bullying!” Victoria. Again. Tanner made a farting noise in her face but she didn’t back down.

“You’re being mean, Tanner Reed, and if you don’t cut it out you’re gonna get in trouble. Big trouble.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

“Shut up, bossypants,” Tanner said.

“I’ll tell,” she warned.

“Just like Kally,” he glared up again at Kally, still sitting silently on Tanner’s monkey bars. “That’s why you like him so much, ‘cause you and him are both tattletale crybabies.”

“You’re the biggest crybaby. You throw fits like a baby all the time and we’re all sick of it. _That’s_ why we like Kally better than you. He doesn’t throw fits when we’re playing and he’s nice!”

Tanner’s eyes were hot again. He wasn’t a crybaby. He wasn’t, he wasn’t, he wasn’t! Victoria was just stupid and mean and a liar. Everyone liked Tanner. Tanner was funny and cool and brave and he let the other kids draw on his arms and connect his freckles together like connect the dots!

“I hate you!” He screamed in Victoria’s face and then ran away, all the way to the back corner of the playground where the neighbor’s plum tree dropped squishy fruit over the tall fence. He didn’t go back to the monkey bars. He didn’t try to play all recess long.

* * *

Tanner knew he was in trouble when he walked in after recess and saw Kally talking to Mrs. Greene. Sure enough, Mrs. Greene caught him looking their way and waved her hand. Not in a friendly way. In a _come here right now_ way. Tanner went there right then.

“I’m going to keep you and Victoria—Victoria,” Mrs. Greene called louder, waving for her to come over too. “I’m going to keep you after school for a moment to work out the fight I heard you had at recess. Both of you go to our science program on Fridays, isn’t that right?”

Both Tanner and Victoria nodded miserably.

“You’ll be a little late but not by much. I’ll send you with notes. And Tanner?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to have to call your mother about this.”

“But—,”

“No buts. We don’t have time for that. Kally, you may go sit down now, thank you for telling me.”

Kally fidgeted and Tanner glared at him. Now he’d have a phone call home for the second time that month and Mom was gonna take away his computer time because of it. Because of Kally. Even if Kally looked as miserable now as Tanner and Victoria did.

Quietly—everything Kally did was quiet and gentle and it annoyed Tanner a lot, how soft and muted this boy in front of him was, how much like a worn page in one of his dad’s old books he was—Kally brushed by Mrs. Greene without looking at her and then he brushed between Tanner and Victoria.

“Tattletale,” Tanner whispered in his ear, every bit as quiet as the backstabbing little mouse was.


	2. Chapter 2

Tanner stewed all weekend over Kally. That dumb little mouse who wouldn’t stop squeaking to the teacher. He’d gotten in trouble at home, just like he’d known he would. And now he had to go back to school and sit next to boring Kally. Quiet Kally. Tattletale Kally who smelled like apples and cinnamon.

By morning recess, Tanner was ready to pick a fight with mousy Kally. But he wasn’t willing to get in more trouble and he knew Kally would tell Mrs. Greene anything he said. Even if it wasn’t super bad, Tanner was sure Kally would blow it up and pretend like it was a bigger deal than it was. Like he had with the lunch thing. By lunchtime, Tanner was beginning to think the trouble might be worth it. Especially when Brad and Lucy started asking Kally what his moms had packed.

“Nothing interesting,” Kally said meekly. _Meekly_ was a vocabulary word from the beginning of the year. Kally wouldn’t know it because he hadn’t been here yet. Tanner wished he’d never come at all.

“Do you know what meekly means?” Tanner asked across the table. Kally blinked at him with those eyes he’d heard Lucy call _pretty_ last week. It took him too long to realize Tanner had been talking to him and he looked surprised when he got it.

“Meek is like…quiet,” he said slowly. “Kind of shy.”

Tanner was mad Kally knew the word anyway. He was a know-it-all. Kally tilted his head, his hair that was too long and too straight falling into his eyes. He was thinking hard about something.

“It’s like if you say something meekly, you say it softly,” he said. And Tanner felt hot all over because Kally had thought he didn’t understand and now the whole table thought he was stupid and didn’t know their old vocabulary word. “Like a mouse.”

Tanner laughed, meaner because of his hot cheeks. “Like you!” And it was true that he thought it was funny. He’d been thinking that Kally was a mouse and now Kally was saying it out loud. Like he was proving Tanner right. Kally didn’t get mad even when Davey and some others started laughing too. He just stood up and left and the teachers let him without even checking his lunch. Which wasn’t fair because Tanner knew he hadn’t eaten anything and just wanted more time to play.

Tanner wanted to see if he could get to the monkey bars before Kally so he made a mess of his lunch tray and ran out of the lunchroom before any teachers could see his little trick. He was fast, fast, _fast_ and the girls could never catch him. Now he was going to catch Kally. He ran past Kally and made it to the blue monkey bars first, pumping a fist in victory.

“Beat you!” He shouted and saw Kally’s face puckering up all tight like he’d just eaten a sour candy. Tanner didn’t make a face when he ate sour candies. His tongue was so strong it didn’t even mind the sourness. He didn’t think Kally’s tongue was strong because if he was making that face without any sour candy in his mouth, imagine how he’d look with a Warhead!

“I don't get it,” Kally said. Tanner didn't get how Kally didn't get it. He'd beaten Kally to the blue bars. What wasn't there to get? “Why do you hate me so much?”

“I only said I beat you to the monkey bars, dummy.” Couldn't Kally take a joke? It didn't look like he could.

“Fine,” he said, not sounding meek at all. He scooped up a handful of wood chips and threw them right in Tanner’s face.

“Hey!”

“You can have the blue monkey bars!” Kally was almost yelling. “I don't care!” And he ran off.

Tanner watched the heels of his green tennies flip, flip, flip against the ground. And decided that he wasn't about to let some little mouse throw wood chips in his hair and then run off. Tanner was faster than lightning. He was the fastest kid in their grade. Kally didn't stand a chance.

With an angry scream, Tanner ran right into Kally, arms out in front of him to shove Kally hard. He tumbled forward. Even his scream was meek, more like a gasp than anything else. Tanner stood above him feeling triumphant. Like Jack after he'd killed the giant.

Except the giant didn't cry in the story. Kally did. It took Tanner a second to understand that Kally was crying because it had started off so soft and small. But he was still on the blacktop on all fours, his shoulders bumping up and down like it was hard for him to breathe. And then the crying got less soft.

Tanner looked around the playground quick. None of the teachers on recess duty had noticed yet. If they did…

Tanner squatted down next to Kally, making a _shhhh_ sound to make him be more quiet. He got louder. Tears were dripping off his nose and he wasn't moving. Was he hurt bad? If he was hurt real bad, Tanner would be in even more trouble.

“Kally,” he hissed, “be quiet. Like a mouse.”

“I'm NOT A MOUSE,” Kally roared. He sounded more like a lion than a mouse.

“Shhhh,” Tanner said, looking around again for teachers. “I'm sorry, okay? Super sorry. Shhhh.”

But Kally didn't get any quieter and Tanner was starting to panic because he could see blood. He was in _so much_ trouble for sure. And Kally was blinking at him but his eyes looked all wrong because they were wet and something else was different.

“I'm sorry,” Tanner said again. A teacher would come soon. Tanner would have to sit in the office until his mom came and talked to the principal. That's what happened when you made people bleed. “Here,” he said desperately, yanking up one of Kally’s bleeding palms with both his hands. “I'll kiss it better, see?”

Kally sniffled in surprise, shutting up for the second it took Tanner to press his lips to Kally’s hand. Then his face crumpled again and Tanner thought maybe more kisses would help so he smothered Kally’s hand in so many kisses that he lost count.

“Kisses won't fix my glasses,” Kally said. He was angry but he wasn't crying anymore. He'd picked up his glasses—that's what was wrong with his eyes! His glasses had fallen off. And gotten all messed up. One of the lenses had popped out and was cracked.

“Oh no,” Tanner knew breaking important things like glasses was sometimes worse than just giving someone some scrapes.

“Give me back my hand!” Kally said, flapping it and trying to pull it out of Tanner’s hold. “I can't fix them with only one hand!”

“Can you fix them?” Tanner asked hopefully.

“I don't know,” he was still pulling at his hand. His hand that was in Tanner's hand. Tanner was trying to let go but he couldn't make his fingers open up. “Let go!” Kally was getting loud again.

“I'm trying!” Tanner was getting loud too. He didn't like that his hands wouldn't listen to him. It was freaking him out. Like those scary stories from that book his sister always checked out from the library. You knew you were in trouble when your body parts stopped doing what you told them to. And not just trouble from teachers and moms and dads. Worse trouble than that.

“I'm not joking, let _go!”_

A teacher was hurrying over now and he picked them both up. He was asking if Kally was okay but Kally was just holding his glasses tight and yelling at Tanner to let go. And Tanner was yelling back that he couldn't let go. That he was trying.

“Oh good heavens,” it was Mr. S. “Calm down, both of you. Come with me and we'll go get you sorted in the office.”

Tanner planted his feet. He didn't like the office.

“You're not in trouble, Tanner,” Mr. S said but he sounded serious and Mr. S was usually goofy. Serious meant something was wrong. Tanner shook his head. He was crying now too. Everything was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys guess what! [internetbanality](https://internetbanality.tumblr.com//) drew the most adorable picture of these poor children getting traumatized (who is traumatizing them is hard to say, really. could be anyone.) [check it out here!](https://internetbanality.tumblr.com/post/190199296203/applesandbannas747-be-out-there-traumatizing)


	3. Chapter 3

“Mom!” Kally jumped to his feet from the red chairs they'd been sitting in after he got bandaids. Tanner was jealous. They were really cool Pokémon ones. Tanner had to hop up too because he was still holding Kally’s hand. He got kind of crushed into the hug with Kally and his mom. It was the one who had shiny dark hair that looked like Kally's.

“What have you been up to, Kally?” She asked, holding him back and looking over both of them. She frowned at their hands and Tanner tried to pull his away again. All the adults had frowned at their hands and it made Tanner feel like he'd done something wrong.

He _had_ done something wrong. Like yelling at Kally and pushing him and scraping his knees and hands and breaking his glasses. But no one had gotten mad at him for that yet. It was just his hands they didn't like and he couldn't help those. They weren't his anymore. They'd decided they liked Kally better than him just like Davey and Lucy and all the rest.

“Sit down for a minute, I'll be right back, okay?” Kally's mom asked. He nodded and tugged them back to their seat. Just like that. Tanner had put up more of a fight when his mom had told him to sit down and wait. He didn't like sitting down and waiting.

“Are we in trouble?” Tanner whispered. He could hear the adults talking behind the door to the principal’s office.

“I don't know.” Kally was pulling at Tanner’s fingers, trying to get them off him.

“It won't work,” Tanner told him. “It's like they're super glued onto you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Tanner said. Kally gave up on unsticking Tanner’s fingers and watched the closed door. He did that thing with his head again, the thing that made his hair fall in his face. Tanner was beginning to think it meant Kally was thinking about something real hard.

“The adults know.”

“What?”

“They didn’t even try to make you let go. And they keep looking at us like that.”

Tanner nodded. “And now they’re talking.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“What is it, do you think?”

“Me?”

“You’re the only one here,” Kally said, pointing at the empty desk. Where had Mrs. Rey gone?

“I keep telling you I don’t know why I’m all stuck to you like—,” Tanner stopped. Now that he thought about it, this seemed kinda…familiar?

“What?” Kally asked.

“It’s like…like a kissing thing. And a period thing.”

“I don’t get it.”

“It’s stuff my sister knows,” Tanner said. “She got a talk all about grown-up stuff and she won’t tell me any of it because she says I’m a baby but I sneak into her room sometimes and read the books she hides under her bed.” That’s where he’d found the scary stories. “But they’re hard to read. Too many words. And not enough monsters.”

“What’s a period?”

“Dunno. But Alicia got presents for it.”

“Presents?”

“Yeah. Not fun ones. Like diapers but stickers.”

“Oh! My moms have those. They’re sticky…like your hands.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Me either. I want my hands back,” Tanner complained. “I don’t want sticky diaper hands.”

“I don’t want your sticky diaper hands on me.”

Kally’s stomach made a sound like a growl.

“You shoulda had your lunch,” Tanner said because he hated when people told him that. Kally hated it too, Tanner could tell because he was making that sour face again.

“I’m not hungry,” he said. His stomach growled again.

“If Mrs. Greene hears your tummy do that, she’ll check your lunch,” Tanner warned. “The teachers are tricky like that. And they think eating is more important than playing.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You are too.” Tanner was also a little hungry. He shouldn’t have skipped lunch to get to the monkey bars first. He hadn’t even played on them. If he had a home lunch, he’d go sneak some of it…”Hey.”

“What?”

“Do you want to go get your lunch?” Tanner was surprised he was offering to help Kally. Kally was surprised too. And his face went even _more_ sour.

“No.”

“What? Why? You’re hungry and you’ve got your whole lunch on the rack. Mrs. Rey isn’t here. No one can stop us.”

“I’m. Not. Hungry.”

“Well, I am,” Tanner was already sliding off the chair and Kally had to do the same. “So let’s go get your lunch and I’ll eat it.”

Kally wouldn’t move any more, though. Tanner turned back to him and made his most annoyed face. He’d known Kally was a goody-goody.

“You don’t want my weird food,” Kally said, face turning red and eyes watering again. They really did look so weird without his stupid glasses. “And I don’t want to stink up the whole lunchroom!”

“Not fair,” Tanner said, tugging still. “You got me in trouble for saying that! We’re even. You have to share with me now because I’m hungry.”

“I didn’t! I didn’t tell Mrs. Greene. Veronica did and then Mrs. Greene found me and made me come talk to her and I didn’t want to and it’s all _your_ fault!”

Tanner stopped tugging. He thought about it. Veronica was the biggest tattletale in the second grade.

“Fine,” he said. “But I still got in trouble for it so you can’t be mad.”

“I'm not mad,” Kally didn't really sound mad, either. He was hard to make mad and that was another thing Tanner didn't like about him. Except that now Tanner had made Kally mad once, he didn’t really like making him mad. “I just don't want to share my food with you.”

“But you just said you don't want to eat it!”

“And you said it makes the whole cafeteria smell!”

“That doesn't matter anymore,” Tanner didn't get why Kally was still talking about that. He'd said sorry. Mrs. Greene had made him.

“It matters to me,” Kally mumbled, meek again. Or maybe sad.

“Why?”

“Because. It just does.”

Tanner was hungry. Kally was sad. Maybe cheering Kally up would make him want to share again. He hadn't shared at all for a long time. Maybe since that time Tanner had called his food stinky and weird. Tanner thought maybe it was his fault Kally hadn't been eating and sharing because just then it made him remember something.

“In preschool, Ricky said my hair was too big,” he said. Kally stopped fighting against Tanner but it didn't matter because Tanner had stopped pulling anyway. Kally’s eyes were all small like he was trying to see. Probably he was, because Tanner had broken his glasses. “He said it was weird because it was so big and I thought that everyone thought it was weird so I cut off all my hair. I got in trouble because scissors are for paper not for hair.”

“Did Ricky get in trouble too?”

“Only a little,” Tanner still thought that was unfair. Ricky should have gotten in as much trouble as he had. “But it didn't make me feel better that much. I still had hair that was too big.”

“Yeah,” Kally said, soft and squinty.

“Yeah,” Tanner said. He looked down at Kally’s hand. “I'm sorry.”

Kally's fingers moved a little. Fidgeting again.

“Okay,” he said.

“I don't really think your food is stinky.”

“Okay,” Kally said again. “Would you like to try some? Mom always packs me too much to eat alone.”

“Yes!” Tanner yanked at Kally’s hand and, this time, Kally actually let him.

They weren't stopped the whole way to the lunch rack and Kally grabbed his lunchbox. They decided to just eat it in the hallway because food wasn't allowed in the office.

“Here, this one's my favorite,” Kally said, holding out the treat he'd offered Tanner before. He tried reaching for it but he accidentally brought Kally’s other hand along with him.

“Oops.” They both laughed.

“Say aaaaah,” Kally was still giggling. Tanner said aaaaah. The treat was really good and Tanner wished he'd eaten it before because it was _really_ really good.

Everything Kally shared with him was really good. Kally maybe wasn't so bad. You couldn’t be all bad if you had good food.


	4. Chapter 4

“There you two are!” The principal was rushing down the hallway, looking a little worried and a little mad. Tanner saw that face on adults all the time.

Mom didn't look worried. She just laughed and came right up to Tanner.

“Told you he'd be with the food,” she said over her shoulder before pulling his head to her chest in a quick hug. “You've really got yourself into it this time, haven't you, Tans?”

Tanner pushed her off him. She hadn't given him hugs when he'd wanted them in the office so now he wasn't gonna give her hugs when she wanted them. ’Course, pushing someone off you without any hands wasn't easy. She laughed again and tweaked his nose, which he liked even less than hugs.

“I didn't do anything!” He said. All three adults—Mom, the principal, and Kally’s mom—looked at his hands. He pouted. “That's not my fault!”

“No, sweetheart,” Kally’s mom agreed. “It's not. I'll go grab your guys’ bags, okay?” That part was for Kally. He nodded.

“I'll show you the way,” Ms. Cohn said, which Tanner thought was silly because Kally’s moms both knew how to get to their class. They dropped Kally off right at the door most days. But he didn't say that because he thought of something better to say.

“We're leaving?” He asked. “Even though school’s not out yet?”

“Yes,” Mom said. “You, me, your friend Kally, and his mom, Sandun, are going to go have a playdate and talk about something very important.”

“Like kissing,” Tanner guessed. His mom gave him a look but didn't tell him anything else. Tanner was excited to leave school early, even if it was to talk about kissing.

“Tanner,” Mom said, picking at his hair, “there're wood chips in here.”

“He—,” Tanner had started to say that Kally had thrown them at him but he felt Kally start fidgeting next to him the way he did when he didn't like something. He looked at Tanner. And then away. “I was playing in the wood chips during recess,” Tanner said. Mom laughed some more. Kally looked at him again, eyes squinting and hair flopping.

“Your hair’s so big,” she was picking out another wood chip, “it's a wonder you don't bring home birds in it.”

Mom was all done trying to tidy his hair but he felt another little tug at it. Soft. Maybe _tug_ wasn't a good word for it. But _pat_ wasn't right either.

“I like your big hair,” Kally whispered.

Tanner smiled, big and toothy. Kally pulled very gently on another curl and watched it bounce back into place. Tanner didn't like when people touched his hair. He _really_ didn't like it when people pulled on his curls. But he didn't mind it so much from Kally. He did it so soft and gentle and shy that it didn't feel like anything bad.

When Sandun came back, she took Kally's hand and they went to her car. Tanner was promised that his mom would meet them there. He didn't know where ’there’ was, but he agreed and let his mom buckle him into his car seat, which had been moved to Kally’s car.

Sitting like this was the worst because his shoulders were all twisted to reach across his car seat and into Kally’s. Kally moved his hand into Tanner’s lap and that made it better.

’There’ turned out to be Kally’s house. Tanner decided it was good there because he was given more food. And juice with a loopy straw so he didn't even need help to drink it.

“Did you boys have a good day?” Sandun asked. Mom was here now too. Tanner didn't know when she'd gotten here. He'd been too busy eating to wonder where she was.

“Yeah,” Tanner said because he'd gotten a lot of food and he hadn't gotten in trouble yet for breaking Kally’s glasses or pushing him.

_I didn't push him_ so _hard,_ Tanner thought. But Kally had five bandaids (Tanner had counted each one when the nurse put them on) and the office didn't like to share their bandaids. So he’d pushed Kally kinda hard, hadn't he? He thought maybe he should have said sorry for that too but he didn't really like saying sorry and he didn't really like Kally. Probably.

“My glasses…” Kally might have been a mind reader.

Sandun nodded. “They got broken, I saw. Momma Nathalie is going to grab your extra ones from Nan’s on her way home.”

“But I don't like those ones.”

“We'll get your old ones fixed as soon as we can but, in the meantime, you need to see.”

Kally didn't agree, Tanner could tell. But he was more worried about the look his mom was giving him. The look she gave Kally next. And Tanner thought probably he was going to get in big trouble after all.

Kally looked up. And he looked at Tanner. And then he looked at Tanner’s mom. And then he looked at his mom and said, “I was running and I tripped on the blacktop and my glasses got all broken.”

That wasn't what had happened. But Kally had said it and everyone believed Kally. And now Tanner wouldn't get in trouble for it even though he should. He squeezed Kally’s hand and noticed that he _could_ do that. Make his fingers squeeze tight and then squeeze less tight. But he still couldn't make them let go. Kally looked down at their hands again.

“Tanner came to help me up,” he said. “But then his hands got stuck to my hand and I don't get why.”

Tanner's mom gave Kally’s mom a look. A look like the one she’d given his dad when he'd asked if babies were pooped out because how else did they get out of tummies?

“We need to talk about that,” Kally's mom said.

“It's nothing scary,” Mom said because she knew Tanner didn't like that sentence. _We need to talk_ always meant something scary. Most times it was trouble and one time it had been his great-grandpa Scott dying.

“This isn't how either of us,” Sandun pointed to her and then to Mom, “wanted to have this talk, but we expected to have time for it before you found each other.”

Tanner looked at Kally. Kally looked back. The way she'd said _found each other_ made it sound more important than finding someone at a grocery store or on the playground.

“Tanner, you know your dad and I are soulmates, right? We’ve talked about it before, do you remember?”

Tanner nodded. Slow. He didn’t really understand how soulmates was different from married but he knew that Eddie from Kindergarten had been bullied because his mom and dad weren’t soulmates even though they were married. They’d talked about it in class but it had just been the teacher telling them that bullying was wrong. That there were all kinds of families. Tanner had asked what it meant to be soulmates and Mr. Tucker hadn’t really answered. Mom and Dad hadn’t really answered when he’d asked them either. It was kissing stuff, he’d decided. He didn’t really care and the grown-ups were all weird when he asked so he stopped asking.

“What are soulmates?” Tanner asked, even though he hadn’t thought about it since Kindergarten.

“It’s when you love someone—or will love them—with all of you. Your mind, your heart, and your soul,” Sandun answered him. It didn’t make any more sense than it ever had but it was more of an answer than he’d ever gotten before.

Mom groaned. “I should have known my kid would be the one to get soulstuck at the ripe age of seven. It’s just so like Tanner. I should’ve been teaching him about it from the beginning.” She said it all big and funny, so Tanner knew she wasn’t mad at him.

“Soulstuck?” Kally asked.

“Mom and I talk about it sometimes,” Sandun said. “We usually call it the bind. It’s a very special time in your life where your soul binds to someone else’s. Someone who you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with.”

“Like you and Nathalie?”

“Yes.”

“When you touch your soulmate for the first time,” when Mom said it, she said it to Tanner’s sticky hands, “you get stuck together.”

“It takes one day, a full twenty-four hours, until the souldbinding is done. Then you’ll be able to let go and everything will be normal again.”

“Usually it doesn’t happen this young. All the parenting books said to wait to explain the intricacies of soulmates.”

“Those are conservative views that have been pushed on society for so long, soulmates have become a taboo topic. But it’s ludicrous to keep such a huge part of our experience as human beings from children. It only does them harm and confuses them in the long run. But it’s hard to break with tradition. Nathalie and I have only been working in metaphors with Kally so far. There aren’t many age-appropriate books or movies that properly address it.”

“I do wish it wasn’t so heavily edited out of children’s media,” Mom frowned. “Maybe if Disney had a movie that actually included the bind, this wouldn’t be so hard to explain.” Then she decided to talk to Tanner and Kally again instead of just Sandun. Grown-ups were funny that way, it was like they forgot kids were even there sometimes.

“Alright,” she said, leaning across the table. “Tanner, Kally, you two are soulstuck—binding—right now. See how you’re stuck together? That’s your souls, keeping you close so they can bind together right.”

“We see soulmates as _true loves_ but times are changing,” Sandun said once Mom was done. “You’re not legally obligated to—,” she pursed her lips together, looked at Mom, then kept going, “get married when you grow up—,”

“What?” Kally asked.

“Married?” Tanner exploded, trying extra hard to yank away from Kally. This was _way_ worse than kissing stuff.

“You don’t have to,” Sandun said, all calm and smooth. “It’s up to you and, when you grow up, we’ll all support you no matter what you choose. But…”

“But,” Mom said, no-nonsense. _Blunt_. That was a vocab word this week and Tanner thought it was kind of like Mom. “Most people who go through a bind and meet their soulmate end up together. In love. Married. The whole thing. It might not happen for you two, but that’s usually what it means. Now that you’ve met each other, you’ll be very important to each other for your whole lives, no matter what. Got it?”

“No!” Tanner shouted. “I don’t get it! I don’t want it! I don’t even like _girls_ , I can’t like Kally!”

“Well, my sweet boy,” Mom said. _Blunt._ “Maybe you don’t like girls _because_ you like Kally.”

“I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna marry him!” Tanner’s eyes were hot. Mom was wrong, this _was_ scary. He didn’t like Kally—he didn’t—not really—not very much—probably not at all. He _didn’t_ like Kally. And he hadn’t ever since he’d met him and now he was supposed to be married with him?

“You don’t have to,” Kally said, small and meek. Then he said louder, “We don’t have to. That’s what Sandun and your mom just said. We don’t _have_ to do anything but be stuck together for a day. Weren’t you listening? We get a choice.”

“I’m not stupid! I _was_ listening and it doesn’t sound like I get a choice. It’s just like when Mrs. Greene tells you it’s your choice to do the homework but then, if you don’t do it, you have to stay in during recess and work on it. You end up doing your homework no matter what and I don’t think that really counts as a choice.”

“What an insightful metaphor,” Sandun said. It didn’t make Tanner feel better. “Whatever happens, Tanner, it’s good to meet you.”

How she said it sounded like how Dad had said it to Tanner’s baby sister in the hospital. It sounded like forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Tanner technically have curly hair in canon? no. but, theoretically, he could have the kind of hair that's _meant_ to be curly but he just doesn't bother with the proper hair care for it. or maybe I just decided that I thought it'd be pretty dang cute if he had curly hair and am making excuses. the world may never know


	5. Chapter 5

“I can’t sleep,” Tanner whispered. It was late and his eyes were sleepy but his brain wasn’t. And his body wasn’t comfy. And his soul wasn’t comfy, either. He was at Kally’s house still, in his room. They were stuck together so they had to have a sleepover even though Kally wasn’t one of the kids Tanner wanted to have sleepovers with. He liked Kally’s moms and they did have really good food. But he missed Mom now that it was all dark and she was all gone. He wished he’d let her hug him even though she hadn’t deserved hugs because she kept laughing at him for not wanting to marry Kally.

“Shh,” Kally said.

“No, you _shh,”_ Tanner said because he didn’t like being shushed. “You always tattle when you should just be quiet.”

“Nuh-uh,” Kally said, sitting up. “When did I tattle? I didn’t tattle on you today for breaking my glasses. And I didn’t tell on you for making fun of my lunch either.”

“You got me in trouble for fighting with Victoria,” Tanner said, sitting up too. “And I wasn’t even talking to you that time.”

“You kind of were. But I thought you were friends with Victoria and if you two just talked, you’d be friends again, so I told Mrs. Greene I saw you fighting. I thought she’d make it better.”

“Victoria? Ew, I’m not friends with her,” Tanner made a face to show Kally how much he wasn’t friends with her.

“That’s mean. That’s mean not to be friends with people.”

“No, Mr. S says sometimes you meet people you don’t want to be friends with and that’s okay but you have to be nice to them anyway…”

“You’re not nice to me,” Kally said. Tanner had been thinking it too. Mr. S would have been sad at Tanner for it. “Most the time, you’re not nice to me at all.”

“Because everyone thinks you’re so good and smart and nice and I don’t like it. You always listen to the teacher and you never yell and you always turn in your homework.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I just don’t like it.”

“I thought you didn’t like me because Victoria and some of the others like sitting next to me now.”

Tanner was all red all over, he could feel it.

“Yeah? Maybe they like you better for now but they’ll see how boring you are. Except Victoria, she’s mean and I don’t like her so you can have her.”

“I don’t like mean people. And that’s why I’m not going to marry you even if you don’t let go of me for a whole day.”

“Hey! I’m not mean! I said sorry about your food.”

“You just said you don’t like me! That’s mean! I thought you were being nicer but you keep hurting my feelings and I don’t like it and I don’t get it. I never did anything to you. I asked you all the time if you wanted to play with me and Davey and Arthur and Len and Victoria and Lilly and everyone. But you kept saying no.”

“You didn’t mean to get me in trouble for fighting with Victoria?”

“No. But if you were nicer and listened more, you wouldn’t get in trouble so much.”

“Everyone says that.”

“You should listen to everyone.”

“Maybe.” Tanner yawned. “I guess you’re sorta okay.”

“Are we going to be friends now?” Kally asked.

“I’ve already got lots of friends and they’re all really fun. I don’t like listening to teachers and doing my homework or being quiet.”

“You don’t have to.” Kally yawned too. Then he laid back down and Tanner was left sitting up all alone with Kally’s hand in his lap. He squinted at it in the dark. It was so different from Tanner’s hands, darker and without any freckles at all. “You don’t have to be like me to be friends with me. And,” he yawned again, “I could always like you best. Next time there’s a new kid, I wouldn’t like them better than you even for a little bit. If you wanted…”

Tanner thought about it. Mom thought he was going to love Kally the way she loved Dad, he knew she did. Sandun thought he was going to be a part of their family like his little sister had become a part of his. He looked hard at their hands. So different, but he couldn’t let go. Today had been a little bit fun…sneaking away to eat food and laughing. Not telling on each other to the grown-ups. Kally wasn’t as meek as Tanner had thought he was. Maybe he wasn’t as boring as Tanner pretended either. Maybe he’d be okay to have as a friend…maybe having someone promise to like you best forever could be kinda cool.

He was so quiet it was hard to tell but Tanner thought Kally might have fallen asleep. Yawning, Tanner wiggled back under the blankets and got as comfy as he could, which was a lot comfier than he’d been able to get at the beginning of the night.

“Tomorrow,” he decided, “I’ll tell you okay and we can be best friends.”


	6. Chapter 6

Tanner slept forever. When he blinked his eyes awake, it was sunny in the room. He didn't understand where he was because he'd never been in this room before but then he remembered.

He remembered because he saw Kally and then everything made sense. This room was Kally’s. This house was Kally’s. The grown-ups sleeping upstairs were Kally’s. But they'd feed him if he asked. Grown-ups always fed you when you stayed at their houses. And Tanner liked the food here so he was already excited about breakfast when he remembered the rest.

Yep, there was Kally’s hand, held tight in both of Tanner's, up against his chest like it was his lovey. Tanner had grown out of his lovey when he was in Kindergarten. He was a big boy now and too grown up for stuffties. Except when he _really_ needed them. Then it was okay. But Kally’s hand wasn't his lovey, so even though he couldn't let go of it, he did stop snuggling it.

“Mmphh,” Kally said, burying his head deeper into his pillow.

“Good,” Tanner said, glad Kally was awake. “I'm hungry.”

“I'm not,” Kally said and it was hard to hear him because of the pillow.

“I am,” Tanner tried to stretch but it was hard with his hands stuck to Kally so he just skipped over the stretching and got right out of bed.

“Tanner,” Kally said, not getting up.

“Kally,” Tanner said, tugging his hand.

Kally didn't get up until Tanner had pulled him most the way off the bed. They went into the kitchen together and Tanner was happy to see there was already food being made. Probably the smell was what had woken him.

“Good morning,” Nathalie smiled at them. She had red hair but not red like Tanner or anyone in his family. “How did you sleep?”

“Good,” Tanner said because he had. “I'm hungry,” he said because he was.

“Have a seat,” she said, laughing. He didn't understand why she was laughing but he sat down. She got him juice and he drank it so fast he got a brain freeze. So he blew bubbles through his straw until it went away.

“You're going to make a mess,” Kally told him but that wasn't the same as telling him to stop so he didn't. He wouldn't have anyway, probably.

Breakfast was yummy and it was even better because Nathalie told them they could play here until they got unstuck so they didn't even have to go to school.

“So that's why we got to sleep in so much,” Kally said. Tanner looked at the time and the little hand was already on the ten so they'd slept in way more than Tanner had thought. Maybe souls worked really hard to bind together and it made them super sleepy.

It was hard to play the way Tanner wanted when he couldn't use his hands. It was hard to do anything the way he wanted when he was attached to someone else. Last night, they'd got to watch movies until bedtime but Nathalie told them to try playing today.

“Grab on to my arm.” Tanner was done trying to play dinosaurs when he couldn't hold them and Kally wouldn't make them eat each other. So he stood up and made Kally stand up too.

“Why?” Kally asked.

“It'll be fun. Trust me.”

“I don't know…”

“Please? It'll be fun.”

Kally looked at him sideways and his glasses slipped down his nose a little. They were too big for his face and kept doing that all day long.

“Take off your glasses too,” Tanner decided. “So they don't get all broken like the other ones.”

That made Kally’s face go all squinty. He didn't trust Tanner. But then he took off his glasses and carefully put them on his bed and held on to Tanner's wrist.

“Okay,” he said. Tanner grinned.

And then he started to spin. Kally got what they were doing right away and he leaned back just like Tanner was leaning back and they held onto each other and spun.

And spun.

And spun.

Kally was laughing, hard and loud, and Tanner was laughing too and he was laughing harder because Kally was laughing and it was fun. The world was just a blur of colors, fast, fast, fast. The world was just a blur of colors and Kally’s face, split open in a smile and silky smooth hair flying out behind him and chin up in a never-ending laugh.

Tanner went flying. He screamed when it happened and heard Kally scream too. He hit the floor real hard and he was too dizzy. He heard Nathalie running to them and asking what was wrong.

What _was_ wrong?

They'd been spinning and having fun and then they'd been falling. Tanner didn't understand what had happened.

“Oh!” Said Kally’s mom. “Your bind’s finished. See, not so bad at all, was it? Tanner, I’ll call your mom and let her know you’re unstuck.”

Tanner looked down at his hands. They were his again, not holding on to anything but air. He’d gotten so used to his hands being sticky stuck on Kally that he hadn’t been holding on right, not really. So they’d gone flying and crashing.

“That wasn’t so bad, I guess.”

Nathalie was gone so Kally had to have said it to him but Tanner didn’t know if he meant being stuck for so long wasn’t so bad or spinning wasn’t so bad. Maybe they were close enough to the same thing that it didn’t matter what he meant.

“Let’s go again!” Tanner jumped up to his feet and waited for Kally to give him back his hands. He did, quiet and soft like he always was. Except for when he wasn’t—that’s when you knew he was really angry or really happy. He got loud then, like a lion.

“Okay,” Kally was holding his hands tight. “Don’t let go this time.”

“I won’t.” Tanner wasn’t stupid. He knew better now. “This time I’ll hold on all by myself and not just because I have to.”

Kally smiled and even though he didn’t make a sound, it was a loud smile.

* * *

Tanner had to eat lunch in the classroom the next day because Victoria had tattled. Kally had put up a fuss—the only real fuss Tanner had ever seen him put up—when Mrs. Greene called them over and made them talk to her about pushing and breaking glasses. Victoria said she’d seen Tanner push Kally but Kally said he hadn’t and Mrs. Greene had sighed all big and looked at their hands. They weren’t stuck together anymore but she’d known they had been or she wouldn’t care so much about them.

“Be nice to each other from the start from now on,” she’d said to both of them but she’d only looked at Tanner. “ _Instead_ of depending on forgiveness. You can’t always cover for someone just because you like them.”

And she’d sent Kally away to the lunchroom and kept Tanner in class. She couldn’t prove what had really happened, she’d said, but she wanted Tanner to think about _whatever actions you may or may not have taken._

Tanner finished eating fast and ran even faster down the path and under the tunnel into the playground. Almost no one was out here yet but there was someone sitting on top of the blue monkey bars. Tanner made his feet _thump thump thump_ quicker toward them. Not because he wanted to get the monkey bars to himself this time, though. Just because.

“Kally!” Tanner called, waving before he’d even made it all the way there. Kally was quiet so he didn’t yell back but he waved.

“I beat you,” Kally said when Tanner stood underneath the bars, looking up at him. He looked like an owl, sitting up there with his glasses that he hated covering his pretty eyes.

“Doesn’t matter,” Tanner was already going fast again, right up to the top of the monkey bars. He was the fastest and best at climbing monkey bars. “Sharing is caring.”

“So...we’re friends?” Kally asked. It seemed like a silly question. Of course they were friends. But then Tanner remembered being mean to Kally and he thought Kally might want to change his mind about being friends.

“Can we be?”

Kally thought about it.

“Only if you promise to be nice to me forever.”

Tanner didn’t think about it at all.

“Okay. Deal.”

He’d decided already that he would let Kally be his best friend. Kally smiled at him like he’d already decided it too.

“Best friends?” Kally asked.

“Soulmates, too, says the grown-ups.”

“We could be both.”

“Soulfriends?”

“Yeah. That.”

“I’m sorry I was mean.”

“Yeah.” Kally was looking down at his fingers, tight around blue bars. “You really hurt my feelings.”

“I’ll kiss it better,” Tanner said because there weren’t Pokémon bandaids for feelings.

Tanner leaned over the bars between them, feeling brave and cool, and kissed Kally’s cheek. And, just like that, it was all better.


	7. Ten Years Later

“Ouch, Tanner, careful,” Kally said, wincing and ducking his head out of the way.

“Sorry,” Tanner yelped, hurriedly pocketing the colorful ball after catching it from its last bounce. Right off of Kally’s face.

Kally, wonderful, beautiful, sweet, perfect Kally didn’t even get mad. He just tucked his hair behind his ear and got back to studying. Tanner liked the way he’d started to grow out part of it. Kally’s hair was the best—silky smooth, it gave no resistance when you ran your fingers through it. If you tried the same in Tanner’s hair, your fingers got stuck before making it all the way through.

“It’s fine. But I told you to put that away ages ago, didn't I?”

“I don’t want to do homework right now, Kally,” Tanner complained. “Isn’t it time for a snack break?”

“You’ve been eating snacks this whole time.”

“Kaaalllyyy,” he drew out the name and pouted the way he knew could get Kally to give in sometimes.

Sighing, Kally closed his textbook. Really, it was Tanner’s textbook but who was keeping track? Triumphant, Tanner snatched Kally’s left hand in both of his and kissed it. It was a habit that had somehow developed when they were kids. A reminder of their bound souls. It always made Kally smile all soft and loud.

“You’re lucky that you grabbed me by the hand instead of by the wrist, that time. I was wearing long sleeves.”

“I remember,” Tanner said. They’d been stuck in those shirts the whole time they were soulstuck.

“If you’d been stuck with your lips to my hand,” Kally continued, “I don’t know how you would have survived.”

“I might have turned cannibal,” Tanner admitted.

“You’re not going to let me explain any more statistics to you tonight, are you?”

The answer was so obviously _no_ that Tanner didn’t even need to say it.

“Tomorrow,” Kally said, “we’ll try again.”

Then he pulled his hand out of Tanner’s and pushed his glasses off the bridge of his nose with a careful finger. There was a little red indent there and Tanner swore, yanking Kally’s glasses off his face to examine them. At Kally’s little huff—not an angry huff but a resigned one, a little closer to another sigh than a huff, really—Tanner realized he’d gone and done it again. Reacted to something without thinking it through.

“I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t broken them,” he explained. Kally reached for them but he was sitting down and Tanner was standing up so it was easy to keep them away. He examined the glasses closely; all seemed to be in order.

“It would be a fitting ten year anniversary to our bind.”

Tanner froze. “That’s today?”

“Mm-hmm,” Kally nodded, “And tomorrow, technically. Can you believe it?”

“Crazy,” Tanner agreed, then moved from his examination of Kally’s glasses to an examination of his face. “It got you square in the nose, didn’t it?” Tanner asked. Kally shrugged, but rubbed at his nose gingerly. Tanner really had to be more careful.

“Kiss it better?” Kally suggested.

Tanner gladly leaned down to kiss the red crease he’d accidentally left high on Kally’s nose. And it only seemed right to kiss Kally’s eyelashes next, which fluttered softly against his lips. Then he kissed the point of Kally’s daintily arching brow. And next, his cheek. Tanner kissed that twice for good measure.

It was hard to remember a time without this. It was more than the kisses—those had only been around since eighth grade—it was the way that Kally made him feel stable and quiet even when his hot-headedness got him into trouble. It was the surety of this—of something bigger than just him. He didn’t remember a time before having a soulmate, not in a solid way. Kally was the first boy he’d ever loved and he’d be the last, Tanner was sure of it. Seven-year-olds couldn’t judge if there was a person-sized hole in their heart so Tanner didn’t know what life without that hole filled was like. Did you even notice? He noticed it now, all the time. Whenever he smelled cinnamon and apples or felt a hand on his arm, warning him to stay calm, or heard the clink of an épée. All of those things were Kally, Kally, _Kally._ All of them were part of him. He could feel where that hole in his heart must have been. Before Kally. Because now he couldn’t stop feeling how _full_ it was with him.

Tanner thought he’d have gone mad without Kally by his side all these years.

“Give me back my glasses,” Kally said, reaching for them again. Tanner rolled his eyes but Kally was so blind without his glasses, he probably couldn’t tell.

“Why? You don’t need them right now.”

“I like to be able to see, actually.”

“Your eyes are going to be closed, actually.”

“I’d still like to see,” Kally said, pushing himself out of the chair so he had more equal footing in the height department. Tanner was still taller and even without that advantage, he was way better at keep-away than Kally was at getting his things back. But Tanner handed the glasses over anyway and watched Kally slip them back into place.

“Better?” Tanner asked.

“Not yet,” he said, hands taking Tanner’s face and pressing it to his. “You forgot our anniversary.”

“I always forget.”

“I know.”

“Should I kiss that better too?”

“Yes, please,” Kally smiled, Tanner could feel it in the way his cheek and jaw shifted against Tanner’s. Kally was never upset when Tanner forgot important dates. It was how they worked.

Tomorrow, Tanner would fill Kally’s locker with flowers and write him a ridiculous and sappy card because that’s how this worked. Kally remembered the important dates because that was his quiet way of saying _I love you_. Tanner made grand, over-the-top gestures because he wasn’t ever quiet, especially not when it came to Kally. He liked to shout it from the rooftops: _I LOVE YOU!_

Kally’s fingers twisted up in Tanner’s hair but, even now, he was so gentle that it never felt like a tug. Tanner remembered the first time Kally had done this—he’d always liked to pull Tanner’s curls and watch them coil up again, but this was different. This was a kiss a moment before it happened. The first time, on Tanner’s thirteenth birthday, he’d been surprised when Kally said he was going to give him his present now _so close your eyes_. And then he’d felt hands in his hair and a little tug at his head that was a suggestion he come closer, a little push that asked him to tilt his head a little this way or that.

Tanner was brought back to the moment— _this_ moment—with a kiss pressed to his lips, the same one Kally always started with. A greeting hello even though Tanner hadn’t gone anywhere. Tanner loved these kisses and he treasured every one of them he got. And he’d gotten many. Then, because Tanner was an explosion and could only be expected to contain himself for so long, he wrapped Kally up in his arms with so much enthusiasm, he accidentally lifted Kally off the ground for a moment. Kally made a sound like a laugh and a gasp but he wasn’t surprised. It’d happened too often to be counted even as unusual.

And then Tanner kissed him. Fingers tightened in his hair and lips fell open against his and Kally filled up his heart all the way to bursting.

Kally’s glasses got knocked askew, the way they always did, but Kally always insisted on wearing them and Tanner liked the way it looked when they were done, liked watching Kally straighten them back out and settle them back on properly. Tonight, though, it was their anniversary. So Tanner didn’t think Kally would have a chance to fix them for quite a while.

Ten years with Kally, Tanner thought, was a good start to a lifetime of this. Filled up and whole. With Kally, Kally, _Kally._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? We got some of them being grown up (ish)...a whole chapter of it lmao. But still! Thank you for sticking with me (pun intended) and reading! I seriously adore these two <3 
> 
> also, as some of you may have noticed, this fic is part of a series. I have no schedule for when the following parts will come out so it could be a while; with me, who really knows? There’ll be five works in this series when all is said and done. You do the math. ;)
> 
> 💜


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